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Monthly Archives: June 2013

That IS the big question ! Will VU Television Network succeed in spite of the CEO’s ( Steven Samblis ) personality ???

Now some may say yes, and point to the side of his personality that is able to influence others around him to believe in him. However, there are others who say no, and point to his abrasive and antagonistic actions to those that don’t fall in line and simply blindly believe in him and his vision and dreams, or, question his actions and in-actions in running the company.

Case in point is a post on Investors Hangout which questions his people skills when dealing with investors. See it here. And a follow up here. And then Steve responds here by saying he will “deeply consider everything” said.

Now, lets fast forward to today, when a poster comments on Steven Samblis posting over on LieHub (which he said he would never do, and for them to delete his account over there). See the post here. Now granted, the post is somewhat harsh, and perhaps not accurate, however Mr. Samblis’s response seems to be right back to to his habitual abrasiveness that he indicated he would try to correct. He followed up a few posts later, and if you follow along starting at his reply linked above you can see his responses. We report… you decide if the reply was harsh.

Although many enjoy the CEO of the company they are invested in coming on to the message board to communicate activities with the company, it appears some (and some may say many) of his responses are less than professional. Some say if he can’t respond in a professional manor as the spokesperson of the company… he should refrain from posting at all. Although at one time we believed the unprofessional responses were just the price to pay for the bits of useful information… we now think the price is getting too high to pay for the little information currently being provided.

We believe the alternative would be for the CEO to either hire a professional spokesperson, or, limit his dissemination of information to formal press releases… i.e. stay off the message boards if he can not respond in a professional manor. We are not sure who writes the press releases, but we feel the press releases of late, and historically, have been very professionally written, and serve to proudly portray the company in a professional manor.

Tell us what you think. Post your thoughts on the subject by clicking the “Leave a Comment” link at the top-right of this article. Tell others that you agree or disagree, and tell them why you agree or disagree.

Also, if you found this site in your search for Due Diligence investment information on the company, you might find it useful to visit our website. There you will find news and information all in one spot.

Maybe the PPS doesn’t reflect that its been a good week, but the multiple press releases regarding the new shows certainly do. The bashers will call it pumping, but its just good business to tell the world what’s happening. See the press releases here, here, here and Steve’s post here.

A reminder about bashers… they have been incredibly active lately on the topics of reverse split and dilution. If you happen to visit the LieHub site you will see that just about every other post mentions these subjects in a negative way. If you want to test the validity of their content, simply post a reply asking for supporting documentation of their assertion. We predict they will either ignore your question, or they will pivot to another subject (or of course your question might get deleted as “off-topic”). Why… because as with ALL their posts, they contain hollow scare tactics right of of the Bashers Handbook. Their motives are clear and unmistakable… their life revolves around an attempt to ruin the company, and destroy the CEO Steven Samblis. With most bashers its just business, however with the bashers on LieHub – its personal ! They have an obsession with Steven Samblis, and lies and distortions of the truth are simply a means to their desires. They are going to need some serious meds once the PPS recovers and finds its true value.

OK… back to VU Television Network. Although these new shows that were announced this week are largely unknown presently, they offer viewers an opportunity for uniqueness in programming choices. Not everyone likes vanilla flavor ice cream, so providers of products offer choices. When the fall arrives just watch the major network commercials for new shows. Some of these will be hits, and some will be misses. Some of the most watched shows on the major networks were once brand new shows, with unknown actors. If selecting hit shows was a science… every show would be a smash hit, but its not. As a broadcaster its trial and error, as no one knows what will be a hit and what won’t. It remains to be seen if the management group at VU Television have chosen shows correctly. From what’s been announced so far… we think they are on the right track.

If you are new to the stock and want to do your due-diligence, visit our website here. There you will find tons of documentation about the company. The page linked just above is listed in chronological order by date, with the newest content at the bottom. Feel free to browse the other areas of the site also… we think you will find it beneficial. Beneficial not only for the material there, but as a reference to refer back to when you think you remember something but can’t remember where you saw it, and need a link to supporting documentation. Bookmark the site, we think you will find it a useful tool.

A visit to the newly designed PunchTV website (see below) might indicate that it is. After a nasty and bitter breakup, what better way to get back at ” The X” than to beat them at their own game.

It appears that in the brief relationship between Steven Samblis and Joseph Collins, Collins taught Samblis a little bit of how to start and operate a television broadcast company, so its only reasonable to assume that Samblis taught Collins a little bit of how to start and run a publically traded company.

Won’t that be a hoot if Collins takes his company public and competes head to head with Samblis ! Its fun to speculate who would come out on top. Lets see… Collins has been at it much longer. Collins has all the infrastructure in place. Collins has years of contacts to call on. Collins is currently broadcasting. Collins currently has advertisers. Collins has a niche audience. AND… Collins has a brand new reason to crush his newest competition.

Now, put the above up against a new company, with a name that will be lost in the mix of the vast number of other companies trading off the “VU” (View) terminology (and there are even one or more Television broadcast companies with that name already). A company that has yet to broadcast its first show on the new network. A company that really all it has is an idea, and some limited knowledge gained from a short relationship that turned sour. In addition to the reasons stated publically for the breakup… could there also have been tension building with differences in creative direction? If so, it will be interesting to see which creative ideas will be successful.

So.. even IF PunchTV stays private, it will be interesting to watch these 2 companies battle it out for viewers (and advertising dollars), and interesting to see which creative design wins out in the long run.

PunchTV appears to continue to operate as usual, in fact one might not know there was an issue, however VU Television Network (still IC Punch Media) appears to be struggling to get off the ground. PunchTV has completely revamped its website, while VU is still displaying default template content on its new website. PunchTV has a full roster of shows, while VU has announced only 5.

We don’t know folks… the underdog could pull it out… but he sure has his work cut out for himself. The ultimate show of investor confidence will be in the PPS. IF PunchTV goes public, keeping score will be easy. We suspect a PunchTV IPO will launch at a higher PPS than the current PPS of VU, which as of this writing is .0017.

Like yesterday’s pleas for other people to post wasn’t enough to shake the trees lose for posts to delete and then bash… now they are asking for people to contact them on the down-low to file SEC complaints against the company and/or the CEO Steven Samblis. Their efforts and motives are not only transparent, they are pathetic and growing increasingly desperate. There is no lie, no tactic, no underhanded and deceiving action that is beneath them. The hate is so great that they can’t control their actions. They are like substance abusers who can’t come to grips with their addiction.

From accusations like dilution, reverse splits, deception, and fraud… they offer not one shred of proof. All they have is an opinion, but not one shred of supporting documentation or evidence to back any of their posts up. They rehash the same old tired lies and innuendos hour after hour, day after day and month after month. Then, when someone tries to post proof that their lies are just that… they delete them.

Folks… don’t fall for their lies and tactics. Their actions are straight out of the Bashers Handbook. Truthful and valid information will be supported with independent supporting documentation. Trust nothing that isn’t backed up with independent verification. And even if the post cites independent verification… research the subject matter yourself. Like we posted here… even when bashers cite information they say supports their claim… if you do your research most times you will find they have misquoted the information, taken a passage out of context, withheld important information, or just simply added in something that the documentation never listed. Again… these people think NOTHING about outright lying. They have done it so often, they don’t know the difference between a truth and a lie… and they do it so often they even believe their own lies.

We have said it a thousand times now… do your own research ! Don’t believe the pumpers… and don’t believe the bashers. Do your own homework ! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us, or, visit our website. There you will find the most common issues the bashers like to harp on daily, debunked, using supporting documentation. Read the issue, then follow the links, then make your own decision.

It appears the vast majority of the investors of VU Television Network have figured out that LieHub is simply a bashing haven for PNCH bashers… and they no longer post there. There are a few pro-pnch holdouts that think posting on LieHub has some merit, however it is, and has been, obvious to the majority that it is a colossal waste of time doing so. All posting on LieHub does is give the bashers more fuel to burn pnch with. Our suggestion is to just forget about that board… it is way beyond any hope of equality and fairness. The supreme rulers over there have absolutely no intention of letting anyone post factual rebuttals to the garbage they post.

Apparently the bashers are starting to realize they are all alone there because recently there has been a push to encourage pro-pnch posters to again post there. Here is a quote from a LieHub poster… “We invite anyone to challenge us. ANYONE can come on this board,whether you agree with us or not.”

Yes, that is indeed a fact… anyone CAN come on the LieHub board and post… even if you disagree with the bashers…HOWEVER ==> you get immediately deleted… lol !

Just take a look at all the gaps in the post numbers. Then look at the basher’s responses to the deleted posts. Its obvious that the pro-pnch post was deleted, and although responses to deleted posts are supposed to be deleted also… they are not. What conclusion would any reasonable person draw to those FACTS ??? The FACTS are… pro-pnch posters immediately get deleted. The rules for deletion are only enforced on pro-pnch posters.

Folks… don’t take the bait. If you post… there is a 99.9% chance it will get immediately deleted. If they don’t delete it, it likely wasn’t doing any good for support of the company. Don’t waste your time or increase your frustration level by posting over there and having your post deleted. Let the bashers have conversation with themselves. Any visitors will quickly see LieHub’s true motive for existence.

Just some thoughts… If you follow the message boards you undoubtedly have seen 2 extremes in opinions being posted (the “Pumpers” and the “Bashers”). You will likely have also seen the more logical and sensible middle of the road posters that simply ask prudent and reasonable questions, and give reasonable and thoughtful opinions. Also, much more difficult to spot, are the majority of investors that you never see… the “lurkers” as they are called. Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. And just because they don’t post, doesn’t mean they are not investors (perhaps substantial investors), and/or, it doesn’t mean they are unintelligent or too illiterate to post their opinion.

To illustrate our point, next time you visit a message board, check out the “views” and “followers” of that board, as most boards will display these stats. These numbers represent the activity on the board. On some days you will notice tens of thousands of views, yet you will see maybe only posts numbered in the hundreds. Just a rough calculation on various days we have checked, it appears there is about a 10 to 1 ratio of posters, to readers. In other words, for every poster, there is likely 10 “lurkers”. The lurkers read the material, and make judgments on the material.

Bashers… this is a post mostly about the bashers. We have posted previously about basheres, here, here, and here to list a few. In these links we believe it will be apparent about our opinions on bashing. Bashing for profit, although disgusting because of the harm it does to real “investors”, it could be justified to some extent, if all you care about in life is money. However, to bash for fun, or vindictiveness… is just plan sick. There is something really psychologically wrong with you if you get a thrill out of causing someone else pain or financial hardship.

The bashers over on LieHub, for the most part, appear to be in the latter group referenced above, namely they find joy in causing others pain and financial hardship. We guess in some sick and twisted way it makes them feel superior to others.

Although there are many unanswered questions about IC Punch Media, now (or soon to be) VU Media Corporation, they are just that, unanswered questions. Bashers LOVE unanswered questions. Why… because if there are no answers they are free to make something up and call such an answer. Its easy, because there are no facts (answers) to prove them wrong. Bashers HATE facts ! Its like kryptonite to superman. Present them with facts and they run away as fast as they can, i.e. change the subject. Its called deflection. If you want to see professionals “deflect”… just watch any news conference with a politician , or of course, watch a basher when confronted with real facts.

Now, there is an well know concept in the investing world… bashers don’t bash a bad stock (company). See the Bashers Handbook here. You will notice this is “Lesson #1” in the Bashers Handbook. Why… what’s the use…what good will it do, the company is already dead.

There was a time, just after the crash of IC Punch Media (the divestiture caused by infighting between company executives) that the stock was falling like a rock. Bashers were almost non-existent at that time. Yes, there were a few hard core bashers gloating over their perceived superior intelligence about the company being no good, and a lot of “I told you so’s”… but for the most part they were quiet.

Now… the bashers are back at it… and hard ! They see the company is starting to recover from the devastating events of late, and they are back to their same old tired bag of tricks to drive the PPS down, by bashing the company, and anything and everything about it. Don’t fall for it. Their actions and motives are transparent. They exist, and post, with a sole effort and mindset to cause you, the real investor, harm and financial hardship.

Some will think… they can fight the bashers. You can fight the bashers, but you can never win, because they don’t fight fair. They are willing to outright lie, slander, make up “facts”, assassinate characters, and use foul language to make their point (are you???). AND… they have the advantage over on LieHub because the site operator supports their behavior. When YOU try to rebut their unsupported lies… they delete your post. YOUR post is never seen, and they are laughing all the way to the bank because the viewers only see their bashing posts, and nothing positive, and factual, about the stock or company. Trying to fight the bashers would be like taking a knife to a gun fight. You don’t stand a chance ! In fact, when you try to fight them it only makes their job easier because you give them opportunities to rebut a ghost opinion (remember… your post will get deleted, but they can still respond to it). They can even quote you for something you never said, because your post is not there to be viewed.

The best way to combat the bashing… is to do your own due diligence (DD). If you read something the bashers write… go check it out yourself. The Internet is a wonderful thing for research. Within minutes you can uncover the truth about whatever issue you search for. Can you believe everything you find on the internet, of course not, but in most cases any valid and truthful information that you find will be supported by independent documentation. Here is an example of such research. Click this link to the News page on our website, and navigate down to the date 2/15/2013. Click the link that says see the report here. When the report loads, navigate to what is listed as page #9 in the report. You will see what the bashers failed to post, or mention in their bashing posts on the subject. This issue is from February, but the bashers still reference this almost daily in their posts. They think readers are too stupid, or lazy, to investigate the trash and lies they post. This is just one example of how doing your own DD will reveal the truth about trash the bashers post.

And remember what we stated at the beginning of the post… bashers LOVE unanswered questions. You will not be able to find any direct response research information on an unanswered question. So… if you see a known basher answer the question… you know its simply their unsupported biased opinion, based entirely on the thoughts and wishes in their sick and twisted minds. Depending on the question, you can still do research, and based on other supported documentation, draw your own opinion on possible answers to the question.

Wow… a long post for us… if you got this far, thanks for hanging in there. In short, the post is simply trying to help you understand that there is no substitute for doing your own DD. Don’t believe anything the bashers OR the pumpers say… investigate the issue on your own and draw your own conclusions… then invest accordingly.

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Yes folks… a formal press release has been released. See it here. Now, for those of you who follow the Investors Hangout message board, there is not much new in this press release that we already didn’t know. But the great news is… the world can see the news now.

As we write this post, (10:00a), the PPS is already up almost 15%. We hope this trend continues, however only time will tell. The release was sometime just after market close yesterday, so it possible this morning’s bump could be current investors buying more in anticipation of an increasing PPS once the general investing public sees the article.

Now, if you’re reading this, and you do not follow the Hangout board, you might want to get on over there and read the posting activity starting around 7:00p last night. The Q&A with the CEO started right after he posted the news (and link) of the article. There are still unanswered questions (like we posted here), however there were some important questions Steve Samblis did answer. Hopefully, he will continue to answer questions in order to give investors a better picture of what’s to come, and then perhaps… he might address some of the tougher questions also.

One more thing… if this is the first of many PR’s (which would be great)… we do however have some concern that the company name has not changed yet. The press releases still tout IC Punch Media. Perhaps its no big deal, but it seems as though the more press releases VU Media Corp. has, using the old company name, the more PR we bring to the real Punch TV (our nemesis Joseph Collins that caused this recent turmoil). Seems to us that the names will cause confusion among any new investors that may be interested in investing in the new (yet to be formal) VU Media Corp.

So… stay tuned… we will see how the day unfolds, and hopefully this press release is the first of many that will follow soon.

Currently… in our opinion… yes. However, we believe it could all be turned around if the CEO would do his job and talk about the company – where its at, and what plans and actions are in the works. Will he do it… doubtful. He has kept silent except to post a few times on a message board, but as we discussed here, nothing NEW was discussed.

The stock PPS is sitting at a 52-week low right now, and likely to go lower if something is not done. It appears as though the CEO, Mr. Steven Samblis does not care about investors. Note we said “appears” to not care. We believe he does care, but, we believe, he is currently making a huge mistake by maintaining his silence about company plans and actions. He stated in a previous post, here, that “Everybody is [working] 24/7 over here…”. We have no doubt he and the “team” are working hard, however the investors need Mr. Samblis and the team to work SMART also. It simply not a smart move to sit quietly while the company PPS falls to earth. Many potential investors will focus on the 52-week low, and lose sight of the 52-week high of 6-cents a share. It is obvious this company has potential, but the management is not stepping up to the plate and capitalizing on the potential. WHY we ask ??? Why would a CEO (and management staff) sit idly by and watch the PPS fall to the ground, causing potentially irreparable harm, and do nothing to stop such?

Mr. Samblis… please PLEASE stop the hemorrhaging. Step up and address some of the questions that are preventing this PPS from moving forward. Do you seriously think you could ever hope to attract serious investors down the road with so many unanswered questions, and controversy surrounding important issues like… why the abrupt turnaround and capitulation to Collins, the unaddressed questions surrounding your new President, share structure, revenue generation, and overall vision and direction for the company now that its divested of PunchTV?

Mr. Samblis… here is a very simple question… is what you’re doing, working? There are 2 actions that have synergy… your silence on the above referenced issues, and the ever falling PPS. If there is no change in both of these actions, we believe, all your hard work will be for naught. Unfortunately, YOU believing in VU Media is simply not enough… you need investors to believe in the company. To date, post PunchTV divestiture, you have not given investors any reason to believe in the future of the company as you do.

You may be working hard Mr. Samblis, but someone once said… if hard work was the avenue to prosperity… laborers would be the richest people in the world.

Get ready… here is the CEO of VU Television Network’s plans for promoting the company:

“We will make announcements about our progress as we can. We will not hire a company to promote our stock price. If people see our progress and see the potential, they will support the stock price and if they don’t they will not.” (see the post here)

We don’t know, maybe we are just frustrated that more is not being done to keep investors informed, however, this appears to us that the CEO is simply thumbing his nose at investors. The above quote is in essence saying… (in the form of a famous quote)… either you are with us, or your against us.

Additionally, it appears the CEO is becoming frustrated with investors asking questions. In one such exchange Mr. Samblis responds to a poster’s questions by posting this…

“I have been asked and answered this same question over and over again. I am taking what time I can to answer new questions that I an answer at this time.”

Investors are asking what many believe are valid questions, yet Mr. Samblis has demonstrated a history of cherry picking the questions he will respond to and ignoring the ones he finds uncomfortable. Now we understand some questions can not, and perhaps should not, be answered in a public forum, but to ignore the questions altogether gives the appearance of avoidance. When there is an appearance of avoidance, it creates a suspicion that something is being withheld. When something is withheld, there is a suspicion that the information is damaging. We feel, it would be best to acknowledge the question, and then explain why it can not be answered at that time.

“Well if you don’t believe what I am saying it makes no sense to come here and try to answer questions anymore.” This was his last post for the day, and who knows, possibly forever.

In one of our recent posts here earlier, we stated… “Evidence of investor frustration and exodus are already evident, and some might say widespread. Your window of opportunity to announce some plans and recent achievements is closing fast.” Well, after today’s exchanges on Investors Hangout, it appears we may have over-estimated the time frame Mr. Samblis had to reassure investors that the company was headed in the right direction.

It appears many of the long-term investors have already disappeared from the forum and/or have become disenchanted with the company, and are joining others in demanding explanations of past and current events. And in one example here, one of the previously staunch supporters of the company and Mr. Samblis went to LieHub and publically apologized to the bashers for arguing with them in support of the company. The post is not all that unusual, as other have expressed sentiments indicating that the bashers have been right all along.

In our opinion, Mr. Samblis has squandered the opportunity to lessen the damage these recent events caused. It is well know, after many companies learned the hard lesson, that when unfortunate events happen, the company needs to get out in front of the issue by acknowledging such, apologizing if appropriate, and announcing actions and plans to avoid such in the future. There is a great article on the subject here. Companies need to communicate openly and honestly (brutally honest) with the investors and general public if they want to have any hope of mitigating the damage the unfortunate event has caused. The is another good article here about the tale of 2 companies who handled the same event differently and the resulting outcome. Here is a great excerpt from the article…

“The European manufacturers are making the classic mistake of trying to appear as victims,” Grabowski says, which is bad crisis management. There are three players in crises like these, he says: the victim, the villain, and the vindicator. “People don’t identify companies as victims because of their size and resources.”

It appears Mr. Samblis has attempted to play the victim in the Collins crisis. We think his actions, and the current PPS, affirms what these articles state about Mr. Samblis actions being “bad crisis management”.